How to Pitch Media Like a Professional Publicist - Part 1: Before the Pitch

How do I run my own PR campaign around my book launch? How do I pitch media? When do I pitch media? Who do I pitch? What do I say? Get answers to these questions from Jason Jones of Jones Literary.

Transcript:
How do I run my own PR campaign around my book launch? How do I pitch media? When do I pitch media? Who do I pitch? What do I say?

What will they want? And if I get an interview, what do I do? And that's why I wanted to spend some spend some time, talking to you guys today about how to act as your own publicist in pitch media like a professional. Because, the truth is, guys, I know hiring a PR firm or a publicist is really expensive, and it's just not in the cards for everybody. I know this because I am a publicist, and I've run a firm of my own for a long, long time.

And what we do is very specialized and very time consuming, but we're gonna help you here today and and and make some great information and tools available for you guys. So that said, I'll introduce myself. My name is Jason Jones. I'm a founder of Jones Literary, publicity firm in Nashville, Tennessee, and I've worked on campaigns for over 500 authors and experts over the years and with publishers and media all over the world, outlets like Fox News and CNN, CBS, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, you name it. And then, hundreds and hundreds of faith based outlets too.

Those are actually our specialty. Our agency is about a decade old, still growing. We work with anywhere from 10 to 15 clients a month. Most of those are traditionally published or best selling authors, speakers, ministries, nonprofits. We book radio, TV podcasts for them.

We help them write op ed pieces and craft messaging. So really, you know, all manner of PR execution. But we also really, really love working with first time and self published authors. And a few years ago, as the self publishing industry was really hitting its stride, I created one of the things I'm most proud of and what I'm really excited to tell you guys about later, and that's a suite of publicity tools and resources that equips and trains self published authors to serve as their own publicists. But that said, this is not gonna be an infomercial.

I don't like those either, and I want you to walk away from today with some practical tools and information that you guys can use. So if that sounds good, then let's get started and jump in and talk today about all the things that you need to do before you ever pitch media. Okay. So first and foremost, guys, I wanna clarify something too. I get asked this question a lot.

By publicity, I'm gonna be talking about earned media. Okay? Earned media is interviews. That's stories and coverage, not paid media. Paid media is marketing, advertisements.

Paid media is something that anybody can get if they have enough money to pay for the space, basically. Earned media is not, and that's the biggest difference. People know the difference too, and that's why earned media or publicity is so much more valuable. And that said, how do you earn media? Well, that's what the awesome team again at Dibbly's brought me on here to talk to you guys about, how to recognize the right media to pitch, how and when to pitch them, and then what to do if they book you and what to do if they don't.

So, I know you guys have all been working really hard on your books for a long, long time and that you're all chomping at the bit, ready to start firing off those emails to media, But there are a ton of things that you have to do before you're ready to pitch media, and you don't wanna put the cart in front of the horse here, guys. Okay? So, I'm gonna give you some context. I remember, being in the office of the booking producer at the Today Show. This is probably 10 or 12 years ago.

Her name was Jackie Levin, and, she had literally hundreds and hundreds of books stacked on the floor of her office, floor to ceiling, lining all four walls. Okay? And those were the books that she had gotten that month. So all of those authors and publishers were vying for essentially just a few spots on the show every month. She also showed me her inbox, and in the previous 24 hours, she'd gotten over 500 emails.

Most of those had come from people who were pitching themselves or who pitching their clients as guests on the show. And, needless to say, as someone who's still relatively young and new in the business, it was really overwhelming and intimidating. But, my point in telling you this is not to discourage you, but just to let you know that the competition is really, really fierce especially for those big national spots. And that's why you want to do some things some really important things before you pitch outlets like Today Show, and we're gonna talk to you about those. And it's also really important for you guys to realize too that these big national television and radio programs are far from the only options.

Okay? And and, honestly, they're probably not the best options for you right out of the gate, because, as I mentioned, the competition for them is really, really fierce. Those are tough to land, especially if you have no experience doing media and if you're a self published author that doesn't have the backing of a major publishing house. The producers on those shows are under incredible pressure, to create ratings every day for their shows. So taking a chance on an unknown author who's never done media before is just not something that's likely to happen.

But that doesn't mean you can't get there eventually if you take the right steps. The first of those steps is to book yourself on some smaller programs and some local media. And, landing local press and smaller interviews just means that, you're gonna have clips. You're gonna have proof that you can be an entertaining and informative interview who's not gonna freeze up when you're on the show. Okay?

It shows them that you understand that your show, that their show is is not an infomercial for your product, and that you've been doing grassroots work and you're committed to your message and that you're not just looking for a moment in the sun. It also means that when you do get that big interview that you're gonna be ready for it because, your first interview is not gonna be your best. Neither is your second or third in all honesty. You get better as you do these just as you do with everything else. So you do not want your first interview to be on the Today Show if you were so lucky, as to get that.

So start small and start local. Okay? How do you do that? Well, first thing you have to do is be a consumer of your local media, okay, or really any media that you're pitching. If you're pitching local media, which we strongly suggest doing first, you have to actually watch, listen to, or read the local news so you can be familiar with their segments and their hosts, writers, and reporters.

You have to watch and listen to and read the outlet, discern who their audience is, and and pay attention to what they're talking about. Okay? And from what perspective they're approaching it. And by the way, guys, everything is political these days, and if you're kidding yourself if you pretend otherwise, you have to pay attention to these outlets. Okay?

Is the outlet gonna be open to your more conservative or Christian content? Is or is a more conservative or faith friendly outlet gonna be open to your more secular content? Okay? So pay attention to what they cover, what approach they're taking to that coverage, and then who their audience is because it's gonna be really obvious to them, you know, if you send an email pitch and you're and you're you're clearly not familiar if you haven't watched or read, or listened to the show. And that sends a message to them that you really just don't care about them or their goals or their audience, that you're just in it for you and to sell a product, and they are not into that.

They're in this really to provide their audience with entertainment and relevant information. So you have to watch, read, and listen, and then personalize your pitches. Okay? So let them know that you've watched, read, and listened, to a recent story, and you have to make them understand why your book or message is relevant and useful to their particular audience. Now as you do that, as you're watching and reading and listening, think about who is the outlet's target audience and who's watching.

Is it more men? Is it more women? Is it both? Is it an older audience or a younger audience? Is it more conservative?

Is it more centered, you know, to the left? Does the show cover a particular industry or have a segment that that does cover that industry? Is it for people in a particular geographic region, local or regional? And like I said, you have to know who that audience is before you write. So, a, they know that you know their audience and that you're likely to have information that's relevant to that particular audience.

Okay? So, like I said, and I'll say it several more times before we're finished, but media outlets at all levels are looking for entertainment and information that will benefit their audience. They are not and never will be looking to benefit you. Okay? They want information and conversations that will benefit their audience.

Now perfect example, if if you're wondering what I mean by that. A few years ago, we were working with a tech company, that had developed this new series of video games. So how did we pitch them? Well, much like you guys, the company spokesperson was an expert on a particular topic. In this case, it was technology.

So, some examples of tailoring that client, to different outlets would have been, one for the the techies and gamers. It was all about the new technology, that the game included, and that's how we pitched the tech industry outlets. For the parents and for parenting outlets, it was whether or not the games were safe for their kids. Were they too violent or graphic? How parents can monitor what their kids are playing and what games were best for Christmas season, for certain ages of kids.

And it was a chance for them to hear from a leading gaming expert who was also a parent, and that was how we pitched the parenting outlets. Now we even pitched some senior outlets. We pitched a story about how gaming was helping older men and women stay sharp and and process information quickly and helping, with motor coordination and and even helping them relate to their grandkids. And that was how we pitched, you know, AARP and, some other senior centric outlets. So, again, tailoring your specific expertise to the audience, is what we're talking about.

Okay? And that same pitch should not go to every single outlet unless all outlets from the same category, in which case, you know, you can, but you still wanna personalize that email. So another question that you guys likely have is, when do I pitch media? Okay. So some good questions to ask yourself might be, is there a particular time, of the year when my expertise or my information or my story is most relevant?

Are there big events or conventions or conferences that might mean that there's more conversation happening around my topic? Are there particular recurring news stories or topics that, might have I might be able to have some input on or any trending stories that are happening right now? And as for specific times of day to pitch, there's really no wrong time, though I have always found that early mornings are most effective for us. Unless unless you're pitching the weekend shows, don't pitch usually on Fridays. Also, early is always the right answer too, guys, in the sense that you never ever ever wanna wait until the last minute.

You wanna on the side of giving yourself too much time. Okay? Don't wait, you know, in essence, don't wait until December 19th to start pitching your Christmas angles or May to start pitching your book as a great summer beach read. You usually wanna start pitching short lead media, and by that, I mean daily or weekly outlets or online outlets. You wanna start that at least 2 weeks ahead of time, 2 weeks ahead of the time when you wanna be featured.

And longer lead outlets, like monthly magazines or podcasts, you can pitch a lot earlier, sometimes as far out as 2 or 3 months. Now, because this is is critical, I wanna circle back to these guys, and I I tell my clients this over and over. You have to remember that your book is not news. Okay? And I'm not being mean about that, but, unless you're JK Rowling, your book is never gonna be news.

Nobody in the media cares that you wrote a book. Okay? Millions of people write books. What they care about is what you can tell their audience that will affect their life. So what information do you have that's important to them, and how can they relate to you, and why should they read your book?

And because it's good or entertaining is not an acceptable answer because, again, it's not about you, and everybody thinks that their book is good and entertaining. Okay? It's only about you in the sense of what you can do for their audience and why are you someone they should listen to. What's your story? What are your credentials and qualifications, which leads us, to the next thing that you absolutely have to do before you start pitching yourself to media, and that is figuring out how you communicate to the media, who you are, and why you matter to their audience.

And the best way to do that, is by creating a press kit. Okay? So what's included in a great press kit is something we'll have to get to, in a different session, and we will because there's just a ton of information to go through. But it's really critical that you provide the media with the right information in a way that's easy to navigate because they are not going to read pages and pages and pages of information. Okay?

And we'll get into a few, pieces of that press kit here in just a little bit. So the next thing that you have to do before you pitch media is, you have to make sure your website and your social feeds are updated. I guarantee you guys, the first thing that producers do to verify the legitimacy of potential guest is they check their website and their social media, and it happens for us and our clients every single day. And that's why our press kits make it really easy for media to find our clients online and also why before we start working with a client, pitching media for them, we have to make sure their website and their social feeds are clean. Okay?

So make sure these platforms are current, with recent photos, preferably something that's professionally done, biographical and contact info. They're gonna check your sites, okay, and your feeds to be sure that you're not, you know, some sort of, you know, crackpot at the very least and that and that you you are who you say you are. If they see anything there that's offensive, you're gonna strike out, or if your website looks like it was built in 1998, you're gonna strike out. Okay? But if what they see, when they go to your website, your social feeds is something that's updated and current, professional, engaging, and that's just gonna strengthen your case as a qualified and credentialed expert or guest to be on their show.

So you have to keep it clean and easy to navigate. And if you can show on your social feeds, by the way, a history of, respectful and helpful engagement with an audience on the topic, then you're really, really gonna enhance your chances as well. And the thing is too, guys, it's not only the media that you're you're thinking about here, but if you get that interview, thousands of people are gonna be clicking over to your website and your social feeds, and that's exactly what you want. And that's the whole point of this thing. Right?

So you wanna grow an audience, so you have to put your best foot forward. What do you want them to see when they get there, and are you ready to engage with them? Think about it. I I always tell my my clients to think about this way. Would you invite thousands of people to your house for dinner and not clean up first, basically?

So, the ultimate win here, guys, by the way, is is is doing big media and consistent media and growing an audience of your own. So an audience of people that wanna hear from you, follow you, share you, and eventually buy your books. That is much more likely to happen, than to have, you know, a rush of people, jump out and buy your book as a result of a 4 minute interview. The the real win here is growing an audience of your own. So make sure before you push people over to your website and your social feeds that all that stuff is is cleaned up and ready to go.

The next thing that you have to do before you pitch media, you have to build some flexibility into your calendar. Okay? There's there's no need to clear your entire calendar, just yet, but you you gotta build on some flexibility, and you gotta be ready at a moment's notice. Okay, for the interview, you have to make sure you you've thought through things things like, how are you gonna get away from work? What are you gonna do with the kids?

You know, do you have a quiet place that's well lit where you can plug in and do the interview and not be interrupted? Does that place have reliable Wi Fi? And if that place is at home, how do you know that your neighbor's not gonna be mowing the lawn or your dog's not gonna, you know, bark at the Amazon, man? You gotta be prepared. And I understand completely that you can't control the Amazon man or your neighbor, and that kind of thing happens to me, you know, all the time.

But, you do need to be prepared to think about all those things. It's all about timing, and you might not get a second opportunity with these folks. So, be prepared. And and when they ask about dates and times, you need to be able to say yes, and you need to be able to say yes quickly. You know, I'll get back to you is not a great answer.

You know, if if you do need to, you know, need some time to to square that away and you don't have all this figured out first, make sure you let them know, hey. I'll get back to you in an hour. I'll get back to you in 30 minutes. Don't leave that open ended because what they're already doing, they've already got 2 or 3 people in their queue that they're probably reaching out to. If they reach out to you and you tell them you get back to them in an hour, they reach out to that next person and they're available right then, then you you've missed your chance.

So just make yourself able to say yes, on on the spot. Okay? Another thing to think about, you know, if they ask you to come into the studio to do a television interview, for instance, what are you gonna wear? Are all those things that you wanna wear pressed and clean and ready to go? So all of this stuff, just you know, we have a a checklist that we provide as part of our toolkit products.

And, you you just gotta think of all these things ahead of time because it's gonna happen really fast. So once you start pitching media, this is gonna all happen really fast. Next, do you have everything that you'll need to send to media? We have talked a little bit about press kits, but producers are often gonna ask for review copies of your book as well before they extend an invitation. So a lot of times that means a PDF version of the book is what you're gonna need to send if they want to talk with you the next day or in 48 hours.

They're gonna need to review that book quickly. You might not have time to mail it, so make sure you have a PDF version of your manuscript that's finished and clean that you can send over. But a lot of times, they they still will want a hard copy, so make sure you have some of those available as well. A few other things they're gonna ask for regularly are a high res headshot and, you know, again, have some professional headshots made. They're gonna need a book cover image that they can use to turn into a graphic, and usually that that's gonna be preferred to be a PNG file.

They're gonna want some endorsements, possibly, and those are endorsements are something that we include in all of our press kits, and then some relevant statistics too to your topic to help them build graphics for your segment, or to use to tease the segment. So, you know, can they do their own research? Yes. But why add to their work when you can provide it for them? This is all about making it easy for them.

Okay? The easier you can make it for them, the better your chances of landing a segment. So next, do you know your key messages and how to pivot to those? If you don't, then you might wanna consider some media training. But, you know, always make sure that you've prepared a single sound bite, okay, like a a money quote, particularly for TV.

If it's not live, a 2 minute interview on television will very quickly be edited down to about a 5 or 10 second sound bite. So you wanna make sure that it's the right one. Just make it easy for them. And and that said, it's it's really smart to, prepare your talking points you'll wanna cover in both short and long conversations too. In radio instances for radio interviews, for instance, you're gonna have 15 minutes probably, 30 most of the time tops, So be prepared to cycle through all your important points really quickly.

If you have more time, that's great. But even that's gonna come and go more quickly than than you realize because the host is gonna do a good bit of the talking, and you're gonna have commercial breaks in between. So an hour long interview can go really quickly. Just know what you wanna say, and get really comfortable, working that in conversationally. Okay?

Circling back to the press kits. Do you have a press kit that'll make your key information easy to find? We could do several webinars on what it takes to build a great press kit, and and it's one of the things that we do, for the people who buy one of our tool kits. We build a custom press kit. But in a nutshell, a good press kit is 1 or 2 page document, okay, that makes it easy for media to see your availability, your areas of expertise, your credentials, your biographical information, your contact information, what your book is about, and why it is relevant to their audience.

So links to previous media appearances are great too if you have those handy and and you did well the last time you were on the air. If you didn't do so well, then maybe you don't wanna include that link. But if you have those handy and and you did do well, you wanna include those. Downloadable headshots and book cover images are great. Audience and demographic information for who you think the book's target audience, to be, that's nice too.

And then just remember, guys again, that the show wants to interview a person, not a book. So your press kit should reflect that. Your job is to inform and entertain, and if the info, that's in your interview is entertaining and informative and the audience likes it and wants to hear more from you, then one, they're gonna follow you on social and engage you and hear more from you, and 2, they're gonna buy your book. But what you're not on the interview to do is to be an infomercial or to sell a product. That is a huge, huge turn off, and an absolute guaranteed way to to make sure you never are invited back onto the outlet.

In fact, if the show is not live and that's what you do, it's likely that your segment will never make it on the air. So your press kit should communicate that you understand that, I e, plenty of information on you and the relevance of the topic and not do not send them a 3 page summary of your book. They are not going to read that, and that sends the wrong message. So you're probably asking, how do you get in touch with media once you have all these things pulled together? Well, how you get in touch with them is, you know, a nuanced question and a lot of different ways to do that.

How do you get their contact information if you don't already have a list of contacts? Again, something that we provide. It's it's part of our toolkits. It's a media list. But a few quick ideas before we we move on to, actually talking about pitching.

If you're trying to track down a specific journalist, particularly one who's employed by a TV station or network or another big media company, there's a couple of ways you can do that. You can call the outlet and ask for it directly. You can Google search for their email address. Sometimes, you know, folks list those openly online. You can find their email address or contact info on their social media platforms.

Sometimes if you read through their profiles, you can send them, you know, direct message on social media. Sometimes a short professional hello on a social platform can get a response. A lot of news outlet web pages have submission forms. I don't recommend that highly, but sometimes it's the only option. If you can't find the person's email address too, you can find someone else's from that organization a lot of times, and you can just notice the email formula.

For instance, it could be first name at news outlet dot com or last name at news outlet dot com. First initial dot last name at news outlet dot com. So, you can guess and and fire off some emails to all those different formulas, and and you you'll get some bounce backs. But a lot of times, you'll you'll you'll guess the right one. So, I know it's really tempting, for you guys to wanna skip over some of these steps and get right to pitching media, but, you have to resist the temptation to not have all these things in order first, guys.

You gotta lay the right groundwork for your pitches, and ensure that you have the right strategy in place. These are all things that are really, really critical that you pour over before, you start pitching. And, again, to summarize, you know, I I can't emphasize strongly enough that you put all these things in place first by doing local media. Okay? Local, local, local.

Why? Few reasons for that. One, you're always most relevant at home, because you're one of us. You're part of our community. You're accessible to local media.

2, there's far less competition. 3, you can get booked more regularly and get more seasoning and experience so that when you're ready to pitch national media, you're ready. And by ready, experience so that when you're ready to pitch national media, you're ready. And by ready, I mean that you'll have clips to send them. Right?

You'll see that you know, you'll show them that you're entertaining and informative, that you can handle yourself, that you're not gonna crash and burn on their show and get them in trouble. You're a much safer bet, and you can also stay busy doing local media too, moving books and booking some local speaking gigs and producing a lot of content for your social feeds and your website. Okay? So many reasons that you should do local media first as opposed to just firing off emails to this big unknown national show while your momentum, stalls and your book sales slow down. Okay?

So to summarize, some very specific things you gotta do before you pitch media. These things cannot be skipped or glossed over, and they are, one, house cleaning. Okay? Website and social feeds need to be cleaned up. 2, build flexibility into your calendar.

3, you gotta make sure you have inventory. You don't wanna land a big interview and all of a sudden Amazon's out of books or you don't have enough books to sell. You gotta do your media research. You have to watch, listen, and read, the outlets that you're gonna pitch. You have to familiarize yourself with your key message points.

Right? Lock in why that outlet's audience needs to hear from you in the 1st place so that you can write a great pitch. And then lastly, you gotta put together a great press kit that includes all those message points. Okay? So I know that's a lot of information.

I tried to get all that in in 30 minutes here. I think I came in just under the wire, so, we have some time now to take some questions, and to read back through, those questions that you guys left during the presentation. And, you know, we've got, you know, I think, 2 more sessions, coming after this one. So we have plenty of time to go over, additional topics. So just, you know, let us know what those are, the what you wanna know more about.

I'm going to jump in here and see, you know, what questions we've got that might wanna be answered. Okay. So, what are the essential items that you need to have ready, before pitching to the media? So, the press kit's the most important piece of that. You you've got to have a way, an organized way to summarize for them who you are and why your book matters to their audience.

You know, and, again, availability, you know, credentials, biographical information, and then, you know, some information on the book and why it matters. That's probably the most important piece, and then just having that flexibility built in being able to say yes. Before you pitch media, you have to make sure that you can actually say yes. There's nothing that aggravates, media more than when we pitch a client and they offer a spot and the client can't do it. You know, they're essentially wondering, well, you know, if they're not available, why'd you pitch them to me?

So don't do that, especially with local media because, you know, the idea is, again, that you're gonna pitch them over and over, and, hopefully, you can become a regular, on on their show. You know, short story, years ago, we were working with a cookbook author, in in Memphis, and, it was her first cookbook. And we pitched her, I think it was on November that we pitched her, to come on and do a segment on local news about how to how to feed people at a Super Bowl party, how to how to feed 20 or 25 people dishes you could cook that were, you know, not the typical buffalo wings and nachos and things like that. And, her segment was great, and they loved her, And they ended up having her back, and she you know, next thing you know, she was a regular. She's on the show every several weeks.

And then a year or 2 later, she was a regular food columnist in the local newspaper. So, and and she's written several more cookbooks, but it all started just with that first segment, that she did in, in on local television. So, you gotta be, organized and and send them the right information, and you gotta be, flexible and available, be available to say yes. So, those are the the most well and and the website too again. You gotta make sure your your websites, and social feeds are ready to go.

So those are the most essential items. How do you ensure next question. How do you ensure your key messages are clear and concise when presenting to the media? Well, you you don't wanna have too many of them, first of all. You know, they're not gonna read through, you know, 15 to 20 bullet points.

You know, 3 to 5 is best. If you can summarize, those key messages in in 3 to 5 bullets, you know, and typically, you know, less than a 100 words, you know, per bullet, ideally, you can be fairly certain that, you know, that's that's a short enough piece, you know, of information that they're gonna they're gonna give that a look. And does it really does it clearly communicate, that you understand who their audience is and and why this book is timely and relevant for them? Because the thing is if you can if you can provide the right person, I e the right producer or the right person at that news outlet, with, information that is timely and and topical, and important to their audience, if you can do that consistently, over the course of, you know, weeks, you send them 3 or 4 or 5 pitches, you're gonna get in all likelihood, you're gonna get an opportunity. So, just be able to summarize, you know, in a very clean way in that email who you are, why you're writing, and why it's important for them.

You know, and and I always nice to have some other eyeballs. Put some other eyeballs on on those as well. Let some other folks' friends, whether they're, you know, publishing professionals or not. And and, honestly, I think it may even be better if they're not someone who's not familiar with your project. You know?

And say, hey. In 30 seconds and one minute, can you read these 3 bullet points and tell me, you know and communicate back to me what I'm what I'm offering? Because that's that's the exercise, really. You're sending this information into a news producer or a talk show host or a newspaper editor who's not familiar with you or your product at all and not receiving this information cold. So, you're gonna be, you know, you know, in the same same type situation as as you will be if you maybe handed that to, to a colleague or a friend.

So that's something that I would recommend doing as well. So what other questions do we have here? What should your website social media profiles look like, before you pitch to media? You know, social media, it's really important that you show their history of engagement. They wanna see that you have put in the time to to grow an audience, and and that you're willing and able to engage an audience in respectful dialogue, that you have a depth of knowledge, you know, that you're not somebody who just threw together a social media, you know, you know, Facebook page and Instagram page and a and a TikTok in the last 3 weeks, you know, and that your your website was something that you you cared enough about to have professionally done, you know, that your nephew didn't build, you know, 14 years ago.

You know, someone who's serious about what they're doing, about being a writer or about being an expert in a particular field is going to have taken the time to do those things right. So that sends a huge, huge message, you know, especially this day and age when it's it's fairly simple exercise to get a a professional looking website built. So you need to make sure you've taken the time to do that. Have some, you know, professional, photography. You know, we don't want a snapshot of you from from Disneyland, you know, as your headshot.

You know, you want something that's, again, that communicates that you're professional, that this is not this is something that's been important to you for for some time. You have to just communicate some depth of of knowledge and some history, of this being, you know, a topic that you've talked about or written about for a long time, and those little things do communicate that. Make sure that you're you know, on your website, for instance, that you you you it's easy to find your contact information. You know? If they wanna reach they wanna reach out, you know, don't, don't make your website too cluttered and too busy and too hard to navigate.

You know, a little says a lot, just as long as it's the right information. So, that will be my counsel there. What else do we have here? Let's see. Alright.

Kirobi, do you have any recommended templates or examples of what an ideal press kit would look like? We do. In fact, we as part of our press kits, or part of our our tool kits, our, the press kit is a part of that. We, since you asked, we'll take the opportunity to tell you, we provide tool kits for first time and self published authors where, you know, we provide you with a custom built press kit. We provide you with a custom built media list.

Those include consultation calls and, access to our private Facebook page and media training videos and a copy of our book and email scripts to help you write great pitch emails, also a 365 day editorial calendar to figure out what media is gonna be talking about and when. So all of those things are part of our our tool kits, and those have been enormously helpful to the authors that have bought those over the last couple of years. But you can find, you know, templates of press kits, all over, if you if you search for those. Probably some great ones out there and probably some that aren't so great. But as a, you know, as a professional who's worked in the publishing industry for almost 20 years, we have built, you know, templates that are specifically, you know, constructed for authors and for media.

And so there are definitely some, some pieces there, that you might not find in something that you generally just search for online. But, yeah, just click over to the link for more information on those on those, toolkits and templates. So what are some common mistakes to avoid when preparing to to pitch media? I I think probably the most common mistake is, just a lack of awareness of what's happening probably, you know, in in the world, being a little tone deaf to what's what's happening, and and pitching something that's not relevant and not timely. You know, if there's you know, these days, for instance, for us, you know, all anyone's talking about here is is the upcoming election.

So for us to pitch something that doesn't in some way, you know, kinda reference an important issue that's being talked about, you know, in the election or with candidates themselves or, doesn't point back to that in some way, you know, how the election cycle makes us feel, you know, how it fits us against one another, what it does to our cultural psyche, how do we I mean, everything is is kind of attached to that one trending topic. So pitching something that's not really timely or or topical, is is a common mistake. You know, the other is, you know, talking too much again about about your book, sending a summary of the book. You know, fiction authors in particular are more guilty of this. The key for a fiction author is is helping, that outlet understand why what you've written has made you an expert in a particular area, you know, or, you know, writing, itself is a is a topic that you're an expert in as a fiction author.

You're a writer, and so other writers would want to hear from you. You know, your topical you know, your expertise is is on on that topic of of writing. So is there any way that that writing can you talk about writing as therapy? Can you talk about, you know, upcoming writers conference? You know, can you talk about, you know, literacy in the in the local school systems?

And there's all sorts of different ways to attach yourself to the topic of writing. Or if you're if you're writing about a particular, you know, if if the setting of your novel takes place in a particular area of the country, you had to have done some homework on that particular area. Maybe there's, you know, ways to pitch yourself as a, you know, an expert on a a history of a a local town or, there's any number of ways to go about this. But, again, the the common mistake is not attaching your pitch to something topical or relevant or, you know, in in in, sending too much information usually about your book. That's that's kind of the biggest turn off.

If if an if a media outlet opens an email and sees, you know, 6 big, you know, paragraphs, blocks of text, that they're probably gonna just close it right away without, ever ever reading it. So, you wanna be able to write something that's concise and informative. That's probably the biggest mistake. Yeah. We're sending a lot of attachments.

You know, you don't wanna send something over with big attachments that's gonna go straight to their junk folder. Usually, one small attachment or sometimes even no attachments or no links. Just say, hey. This is a basic summary of why I'm writing you. If you want more information, I've got a press kit available.

I'm glad to send you a link. I'm glad to send you, you know, that document. So, sending too much information in the form of attachments or links or book summaries is probably the biggest mistake people make. But listen, it's been really great, getting through all this information with you. I really, really hope it was helpful.

I know it was a lot, and, you know, there's there's still so much more that we're gonna talk about over the next couple of sessions, and those will be a little bit more targeted towards specific, options and maps. This was more 30,000 foot view, but those will be, you know, on on things like putting together press kits and and how to pitch media, how to write great emails, and things like that. So just stay tuned in, and and pay attention to, you know, great great team. We will let you know what, what we're gonna be covering. It's been really great talking with you guys and, really hope, to sign up for the next session, and and and join me again.

And, you know, pop over via the the button and the link that they're gonna provide you to get more info on those toolkits. And and, yeah. Really great to talk with you, and thanks for joining.